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Kate Courtney

The Next Generation

By InnerVoice

July 20^th, 2018

All-In

I straight up didn’t know mountain biking was a competitive sport, which I think is hilarious. There are pictures of me riding mountain bikes with my dad at age 6, but I had no exposure to the competitive world of cycling at that age. Looking back, I can see that I always loved individual sports and was drawn to the work ethic that goes along with them. I love working with the idea that effort-in means progress-out. In hindsight, my love for the sport makes perfect sense.

During my freshman year of high school I was seeing some success as a runner and I joined my high school’s MTB team as a way to cross-train. I quickly realized that cycling included a lot of the parts of running that I liked, but with a new aspect that I loved. As a runner, I liked training and being able to run and compete with teammates, it’s a really social sport with a lot of camaraderie. But - and this is the critical ‘but’ for me - I love mountain bike racing. In my experience, running was more of a strict test of endurance, whereas mountain bike racing requires a new level of tactical and technical skills. Being exposed to a sport that is so exciting and demands so much focus - mentally and physically - really shot me on this path of being all-in on mountain biking.

Your thoughts matter

The mental side of racing has been a huge focus for me. I am a firm believer that your thoughts have a huge impact on your wellbeing and ultimately on your performance. During a race, I am always thinking about something, so why not fill my head with positive thoughts?

I used to think that some people just had more grit or tenacity than others, but in the past few years I have learned that mental strength and resilience are skills that you can learn. Just like in meditation, you can teach yourself to come back to the present moment and find something positive or motivating to focus your attention on. If I’m having a tough race and lose a few positions, for example, I might shift my focus to something I can control - committing myself to doing all the technical features really well on this lap, or focusing on hitting my lines really smoothly, or even passing just one person. It’s these small things that help me regain my rhythm, which can often make a big difference in a long race.

One of the most important parts of my mental preparation is finding rituals that help me approach every race in roughly the same way. Everyone is different and has different needs leading into a race. Throughout my racing career, I’ve had a lot of time to dial in a plan that works best for me, and find ways to control my preparation so I can trust I will feel ready to perform on race day.

No matter how much experience you have in racing, however, no two races are the same and each brings a new set of mental and physical challenges. Last year I was dealing with the pressure of being at the top of my category and setting my sights on the World Cup Overall in my last year as a U23. I had to learn how to both believe in my goals and also deal with the pressure that comes with aiming to win. It was a whole different kind of pressure for me. This year, in contrast, my focus is on making a successful transition to the Elite rankings and believing that I can make it to the front of that field. Every season and every race is different, but the process of dealing with new challenges and pressures is much the same for me. I try to be thoughtful and reflective, be honest with myself about my goals, and with my team and accept that, at the end of the day, giving my best effort is all I can really control.

“Lindsey Vonn was my hero growing up. She’s a Red Bull athlete so I got to meet her once - I fan-girled so hard that I couldn’t focus on my workout.”

Joy & Hard Work

Recently, I did an exercise with Lululemon where they had me go through a process to define my core values. My top two were joyful and hard-working. I think that’s a good way to describe how I want to be remembered as an athlete. I feel like a lot of the time people try to pit those two things against each other: either you are a hard-working, very serious athlete or you must not care. For me, however, it is my love for the sport and the joy I get from riding my bike that makes me want to put everything into it. Yes, I might be having fun on my pre-ride or smiling on the start line, but I’m completely on top of it.

I love racing my bike and I’m preparing ruthlessly. For me, it’s those two things together - joy and hard work - that allow me to be at the top of my game and enjoy my life.

It takes a village

I think my village of support is really, really important to my success and happiness. Being an athlete can be very lonely and hard when you’re doing 6-hour training rides, solo, and spending a lot of time traveling away from family and friends. For me, having a really grounded group of people that I can come home to and rely on when I’m abroad is key. I know that every person in my village - whether it’s my coach or my boyfriend - believes in my goals and are on board with the journey to get there. When I line up to race, I can feel those people behind me, supporting me every step of the way.

A lot of athletes struggle because they have to maintain a very different lifestyle. I get a lot of questions about being a college student and how I was able to make the athlete lifestyle work amidst the social and academic pressures of being at school. For me, it came down to the support of the friends and family around me who were always willing to help and push me when I needed it. In particular, my boyfriend Will played a huge role in helping me maintain my drive and love for the sport while I struggled to balance cycling with Stanford’s academic demands. He is also a cyclist and loves to plan big adventure rides. Whenever times were particularly tough or stressful, I could always count on him to take me on an incredible ride and remind me how much fun it is just to ride my bike. If you can get back to that - to the reason you started in the first place - it becomes a lot easier to deal with the tradeoffs you might have to make and the hard work you will have to put in to reach your goals.

I live about an hour from my family and have a really close relationship with my parents. My dad is one of my favorite training buddies and is incredibly fit. He spends a lot of his time training to be able to go on long rides with me. He is also a pretty great mechanic and spends a lot of time working on bikes and making sure things stay in working order. My mom is another huge support system for me. She acts as my business manager and, particularly during the time I was a full-time student, spends a lot of time making the logistics of travel and training feasible. Recently, I was about to go to altitude camp and my mom asked “how would you like me to come and cook for you for a couple of days?” Uhhh, absolutely! I lucked into such a wonderful support system with my family.

Beyond my family, I’ve put energy into building a dream team of support people. I go to great lengths to find the right people and make sure they are communicating. I have my coach, my strength coach, my sports psychologist, my nutritionist...and they’re all A+ people who care about me as an athlete and as a person. I’ve formed really close relationships with all of them. It’s a team sport, and it takes a huge amount of support.

Things I Can Manage

A lot of the time my sport becomes my whole life. There are certainly times when I feel guilty about focusing so much of my energy on something that seems self serving and requires so much from the people around me. At the end of the day, though, cycling has also brought out the best in me in so many ways, and allowed me to connect with so many people around the world who share my passion.

The sport has helped me become more self-reflective and recognize the amazing power we all have to influence our own lives. In cycling, there are a lot of things you can’t control, but when you start to list out “Things I Can Manage” - it’s a long list. I think that’s true of life in general. Okay, sure, every day might not go as planned, but you always have the opportunity to change your attitude and behavior - starting right in this moment. You might recognize that you’re tired and cranky today and decide that you won’t be like that tomorrow; you can choose to change that. I think that helps me be less self-critical off the bike, but still be aware of the direction I want to go and not so panicked about not being there right now.

Influence

One of the reasons I spend so much time on Instagram (and trust me, I’ve spent a lot of time considering how much time I spend on there and whether it’s worth it) is when I see a girl respond to a post with something like ‘you inspired me to ride my bike.’ I feel like saying "No, you’re inspiring me!" I’m inspired by people who are getting out and doing something, trying new things, pushing their limits. That’s motivating to me. Whether they’re the best in the world or just starting out, it doesn’t matter, they're doing it.

In races, I get a lot of motivation from that connection to the broader cycling community. It’s really interesting the types of things that pop into your head during a race. I’ll often remember certain interactions, or something my mom said in a pep talk (Mom gives really good pep talks). There is one race that sticks out for me where a random motivation got me through. I was winning by a minute but was getting really tired. I remembered being at the same race 5 years earlier and I didn’t see an American on the podium. I remember thinking that I want young American girls to see one of their own on the podium and know that it’s possible. I believe that once you can see someone else do it, you will be more confident that you can too.

For me, the desire to influence the next generation of cyclists, and particularly female cyclists, is really powerful. I am following in the footsteps of so many strong American women before me. I hope to just take one more step, to keep building the path and showing the women that will come after me that they can take it to the next level.

Cape EPIC

This year I did the Cape Epic, which was a HUGE challenge for me. A personal journey I’d say. It was one of the first times in a long time that I wasn’t sure if I would be capable of even finishing the race. I’ve raced the full World Cup circuit for 7 years - I know how to get to the start line and how the races feel and how to deal with things that go wrong - but Cape Epic brought a new set of challenges. Will I finish? Will I survive? Through that experience I had a lot of moments of reflection and I learned failure actually isn’t my biggest fear. A bigger fear for me is not knowing. If I try an interval and I can’t do it, I can live with that. But if I go home early, I will always wonder if I could have done that interval. What might have happened? The fear of not reaching my potential or not pushing my limit and not knowing where it is, that’s a bigger fear than trying and failing.

No-one outside of my inner circle thought I was going to succeed at the Cape Epic. It’s a really hard race, and I understand why they were worried about me, but I also prepared for this event in a way that I had never prepared for anything before. It allowed me to develop a really big base without just slamming my head against a wall by just riding by myself. I think it was really valuable for this season as a whole and as I continue to challenge myself in the future. I’m not sure if I will be doing the Cape Epic next year, but I want to pick something new and challenging to try every season. Next year it might be a road stage race in Europe or another big MTB race, something that pushes my comfort zone and a little bit foreign to me.

Photo by Andrew McFadden/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS

Photo by Ewald Sadie/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS

Photo by Nina Zimolong/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS

Continual improvement

I have a lot of different goals right now. For this year it’s the World Cup circuit. I’m starting to get my footing in the elite field and working my way up. I’ve been at the front - I’ve not finished at the front but I’ve been up there and I know what it feels like. Now, it’s a matter of continuing to learn and starting to find the confidence and fitness to race at the front. My biggest focus right now is just learning and improving at the Elite level.

Longer term: Olympics are on the horizon. I have learned that I need new challenges to bring out the very, very best in me, and making the Olympic team is about as big as challenges come.

Footnotes

Words by Kate Courtney, Cover photo Ewald Sadie/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS, Kate Courtney and as attributed, Editor Cody Royle, Published by Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group.

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FootNotes

Words by Kate Courtney, Cover photo Ewald Sadie/Cape Epic/SPORTZPICS, Kate Courtney and as attributed, Editor Cody Royle, Published by Travis McKenzie, Copyright NTSQ Sports Group.

Colin O'Brady

Kate Courtney

The Next Generation

FootNotes

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I'm Here To Win

The Humble Son

My Incredible Journey

The Most Interesting Man In The World

Season 3